Windows 7 RC builds leaks: Nothing to see here

So the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) build (7100) has leaked to the torrents. People scramble. Downloading ensues.

Sadly, there's nothing new to see in this build. If you've been following along with my coverage of all the post-Beta builds over the past few months, you've already seen everything there is to see in the RC. That said, many haven't looked at Windows 7 since the Beta, and certainly the improvements since that milestone are tremendous. But this leaves me in a bit of a quandary: How do I cover something that hasn't changed?

Well.

Once I get the OK from Microsoft, I'll post the expected screenshots and review. My review will focus on what's changed since the beta, not what's changed since, say, build 7077, because, well, nothing's changed. Windows 7 RC is a very-close-to-final look at what Microsoft plans for the final release (barring any UI coming change, of course), so it's important and interesting regardless. But those, like myself, that have been plying over interim builds ... geesh. This thing is just done from what I can see.

Rafael and I do have some secrets to share, but again, we need to wait. There is more coming.

Regarding availability, I don't have any info that I can relay on when the RC build will be made available through official channels, but everyone who wants it should be able to get it in the coming weeks.

Discuss this Article 57

"Sadly, there's nothing new to see in this build."
Well, that sucks.
"There is more coming."
If there is nothing new in the RC then I'm left to assume that the "more coming" must be in the post-RC builds or in the RTM. If Microsoft is waiting until the RTM to introduce something dramatic then that could either turn out really good or really, really bad.

"Sadly, there's nothing new to see in this build."
Of course not.
The whole point of the process is to make tweaks during the beta based on beta tester feedback and stabilize for release. And stabilizing means the changes become fewer and more minor as the product development cycle progresses and the product matures.
The bar to make changes after RC is very, very high. Don't expect the release to be significantly different from the RC. The whole point of a Release Candidate is that it is a Candidate for Release. What gets fixed from this point on are things big enough that they'd block shipping this version. Remember that any change in code contains the risk of breaking things. You don't make changes lightly this far along.
And that's a good thing. It's precisely what a beta and RC are for. Tuning, finding compatibility issues in the vast number of hardware and software combinations that exists out there in the billion user ecosystem around the world and fixing the issues that come up in the beta.
While it's fun to expect surprises, stability and compatibility sure beat the "it works in the lab and we'll fix the issues after we ship" methodology that happens when keynote surprises take precedence over the good of the users.
To use the old ad phrase, "the best surprise is no surprise".
And, hey, Paul, if there were big last minute changes, think of all that rewriting you'd have to do and all the new screen captures you'd have to get Raf to put together.

The flashy, UI-stuff is nice, but I think MS learned it's lesson the hard way: If the underpinnings aren't more than solid, than the rest is merely fluff. As my H.S. algebra teacher taught me, triple checking is never a bad thing.
On the other hand - they've got to get this thing out and out soon....

I plan to wait for the official plebian release. (For one thing, I don't have a bitTorrent client and don't want one.)
And it only goes on my laptop, which is back to its proper role as pure sandbox.
But I will look at the pictures and read the review when they come, of course.
--John (death to the stupid fish image) Baxter

As for those who think Microsoft *must* include surprise features in RC so they can be fully fleshed out in *public* Windows 7 testing. Why *pubic*? They could just as well have created a private Windows 7 test group for this. And who knows that could have been going on for months already.
I think this *new stuff*, perhaps touchscreen UI is likely an additive feature. There is no way they would throw away all the usability data they got since Windows 7 Beta. Perhaps its something along the lines of Orgami or HP's Touchsmart. I think touchscreen users, especially in certain environments ie kitchen, would appreciate a simplified dashboard. That said, if this what they want to deliver..shouldn't this be done via Media Center? I think so.

...I take back my comment about using Media Center for dashboard. I think it would need to be more multi-touch based. It would be cool if they were to include some UI elements of Surface Computer into Windows 7. Perhaps an optional Windows Desktop experience based on Surface.

A nice surprise would be Aquarium screen saver.
Well, it's early Friday afternoon EDT and still no RC on Technet. I was wondering if I'd be installing it this afternoon and weekend. In Redmond it is still early in the day so it might show up yet. if not, probably Monday or Tuesday. I don't do the torrent thing so I will have to wait ..
.. I'm waiting .. lol

Like Mike said. To add, it take some time to create it, so why would you expect any major changes on the past few days or weeks? You liked what you saw on the first beta, so just enjoy. [Don't have a cow, man]
Doc

why can't I get a snarky paul report on Microsoft's revenue drop? he was all over apple's. Apple may have 2% of the US market but they had 60% of Microsoft's revenue for the quarter! I know, I know, it's the one guy somewhere that bought mobileme subscriptions for secret santa parties.

windowsitpro.com/.../microsoft-earnings-stumble-sales-fall-for-first-time-in-23-years.html
Microsoft has peaked. They are like IBM all those years ago, to big, to fat to know what is wrong. They need to plan the lowering of their market share in a way that is not climatic for them.
I can see them 10 years from now being like the new IBM, smaller player focused on a specific market segment, after the stumble some more and look bad for a while.
Some serious cutting of stuff not making money needs to happen say like Zune/360 for starters. How much have they poured into these 2 only to come away this quarter with a 31milllion dollar loss.

1. It's one quarter. If you can predict the future of the company based on one quarter's results, hat's off to you, Nostradamus.
2. I've seen comparisons to GM elsewhere and my guess is that robertsjoe or ocean or cesjr will try it here. Microsoft is still making money.
3. It's the economy, stupid. For those of you who follow only two companies - your beloved Apple and the evil Microsoft, the economy isn't really doing all that well, you know? Lot of companies reported lower profits. Lot of people lost jobs.

BladRnr: You're right that the article regarding Microsoft's earnings was mostly just a recitation of the numbers but that's pretty much what his Apple earnings post was too, with maybe a couple of non-newsie comments.
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/22/mac-mark...
I'm really just at a loss in understanding what you're expecting. He said Microsoft's earnings were down for the first time in decades and gave a couple of reasons why. What else do you expect him to say and do you expect that whenever he has a comment about anything that he must publish it in every possible place just so you don't miss it?? Come on, you're really picking nits here.

Shark that's not the point, the point is the standard should be applied equally.
As to your point #2, don't know, but the usual culprits sure pointed out how "Apple" was "failing" for their report...
Seems to me that certain people operate on two sets of rules.

The Media Streaming stuff looks interesting. I kind of wonder where the internet media streaming fits in with a Windows Home Server though.
How does that work with multiple computers in a network that are all set up as media servers? Are we expecting more UPnP phun to get this to work?

"And Apple, ATT, Amazon and Netflix all had great quarters, so no one can blame the economy wholly for MSFT's quarter."
Again. It's one quarter, dude. And Apple, ATT, Amazon and Netflix are anomalies. Most companies are struggling in this economy.
"As to your point #2, don't know, but the usual culprits sure pointed out how "Apple" was "failing" for their report..."
I don't know. Any company that manages to grow in this economy is doing extremely well, in my opinion. I work for a consulting firm and we're having a pretty tough time.

Shark- your analysis is one that people are going to take issue with, whether they are in Apple's or MS' camp... there are some that do not need to be named (simply because its obvious) that who were falling all over themselves yesterday to explain why Apple should be harped on for what was an unbelievable quarter in the economic climate. Yet MS has some tremendously bad news for MS' level of performance and its the sound of crickets.
No one in their right mind wants anyone to lose their jobs regardless of their platform ideologies...
Sorta takes the wind out of the argument that reporting or even blogging is equal here.

I understand why our useless main stream media doesn't get why MSFT had a slow qt. But people who read this blog and others like it aren't surprised are they. I'm building a new machine this year, guess what I'm waiting for Win 7, I'll probably upgrade at least 2 other machines as well, I expect Q4 (calender) will be huge for MS.

"I'm building a new machine this year"
The Core i5's will be out in a short while. They're the mainstream version of the Core i7's that'll have options for cheaper, non-enthusiast-level motherboards. A Core i7 920 is a good deal for someone that wants a decent multimedia machine....up until they realize the motherboard costs as much as the processor.

Perhaps the 360 and Zune should go if they are perpetual big revenue losers. I certainly don't see a halo effect from the 360. After all, it is a PC gamer replacement. Does MS actually sell games? If so, is there a profit?

BladRnr: I just don't understand your outrage at Paul posting something on one Windows site and not on another Windows site. I really don't see the double standard in that but if you want to believe there is then go ahead.

"Or is there a perception to belittle everything Apple does, right or wrong, while giving a pass to MSFT?"
Ask Leo Laporte the opposite the next time he laughs at anything Microsoft on MacBreak Weekly.

>from the 360. After all, it is a PC gamer replacement
Gaming is just the gateway. I think Microsoft plans were (and still are) to turn the Xbox into more of a living room appliance over time. They have been marginally successful with movie and TV downloads and Netflix interop. The MCE extender stuff is great for those that actually know about it.
I just think they've done a bad job at getting past perceptions that it is more than a gaming machine. Sony has had similar troubles with the PS3.
But over time, I would not be at all surprised to see Xbox evolve into a more fully functioning set top box. The living room has always been a big area of future contention. And MS wants to be there as the platform of choice.
I'd hope to see the 360 become more PC-like, in fact. Keyboard and mouse option, Web browser, e-mail, telephone integration, and so on.
On Topic: Of course there's not big changes in the RC over what's been shown in the interim builds since 7000. That's the goal. If there had been big changes at this point, it would mean something had gone wrong.

@Dude1313 - "Sorta takes the wind out of the argument that reporting or even blogging is equal here."
I have asked this before and was never provided an answer...where has Paul EVER claimed to be fair on this blog or WinInfo? Maybe I missed it.
--tayme

BladRnr: "So you see no problem in Paul dissing Apple's numbers."
What follows is the full text of Paul's post about Apple's numbers. To a non Apple fanboy, I think it sounds like Paul is very impressed by Apple's performance and calls them recession-resilient. I think your idea of "dissing" is far different than mine.
================================
Mac market share in Q1 2009 = 3.36 percent, Apple earnings strong
Apple has announced its earnings for the first calendar quarter of 2009, and while no company is likely recession proof, Apple is certainly recession-resilient. The company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, which is huge. Mac sales were a much better than expected 2.22 million units, and though that's down a pretty meaningless 3 percent, year over year, it's enough for 3.36 percent worldwide market share. (In the year ago quarter, the Mac accounted for just 3.26 of all PC sales worldwide.)
US market share, of course, is harder to gauge since Apple doesn't break out US numbers explicitly. Looking at IDC (1130 units) and Gartner's (1135) estimated sales figures for the US, Apple's Mac has about 7.49 percent market share in the US. That's a bit more vague of an estimate, of course, but it seems reasonable.
Either way, the Mac's in great shape, despite the economy.
More impressive, perhaps, is the iPhone. Sales of the iPhone more than doubled year over year, with Apple selling 3.79 million units (according to AT&T, 1.6 million of them in the US).
iPod sales were up an inconsequential 3 percent, suggesting that the new iPod shuffle hasn't been a fast seller. It's rare for Apple to completely replace an iPod model in the first quarter (they usually go after the full lineup each September) but it doesn't look like it made much of a difference. Maybe the next shuffle could be bigger and have a real UI.

"@shark47
No disrespect, but you are still missing my point. Apple got shafted by most of the people on this site yesterday, including Paul. All I read was, "They only have 3% worldwide market share." As if that matters when a company had their BEST non-holiday quarter ever.
Then when MSFT has their worst quarter in 23 years, nobody wants to discuss it. Would that be fair? Would that be honest? Or is there a perception to belittle everything Apple does, right or wrong, while giving a pass to MSFT?
Does anyone see the double-standard here?"
Oh, yeah. It's so clear. Compare the comments about Apple yesterday and the Microsoft press release thing he put up on Wininfo.
And, shark, on that "just one quarter" thing. Yes, agreed, certainly, one quarter is not a trend. Of course, Paul wants to trumpet the one quarter decline in Apple sales, which have increased 100% in the last 20 quarters. No comment on that contradiction from anyone else here yesterday, but now that Microsoft has had (and I love the phrasing), its worst quarter in 23 years, we're all over that "just one quarter" point.
Well, fine, but let's apply the logic uniformly, eh?

Tayme-
I have no issue if any company gets taken to task by anyone, the funny thing is that there is to separate standards as to how this is done (and I'm not just talking about Paul). Apple gets grilled for what is by all accounts a outstanding quarter and MS having their worst one (or one of their worst) in 22 years and there is nothing pointing that out.
My point is that if anyone is going to use one set of standards and grill a company for having a pretty darn good quarter (apple) and then cherry pick the things one doesn't like to bolster the argument... But when another company (MS) has one of their worst and there is no mention about it.
This is no different then trumpeting the UK MS ads as "unassailable" when in the past school trips to the Apple Store are "despicable".
Like what you want (that's anyone), dislike what you don't, my issue is with consistency (or lack thereof).
In reading your responses over the years, your viewpoint and mine are a lot closer then I would have ever guessed. And the ones that we aren't on the same page... I at least respect your logic, not all here I would say that about.

"No disrespect, but you are still missing my point. Apple got shafted by most of the people on this site yesterday, including Paul. "
Here are some of Paul's comments about Apple's earnings:
"Either way, the Mac's in great shape, despite the economy."
"More impressive, perhaps, is the iPhone. Sales of the iPhone more than doubled year over year, with Apple selling 3.79 million units (according to AT&T, 1.6 million of them in the US)."
Sure. They got shafted by Paul! I really don't know what you guys expect from him. Did you expect him to sing songs in Jobs' praise?

I thought Paul's item on the Apple quarterly results was straightforward and refreshingly free of snark. He gave credit where credit's due, and more power to him. Some of the commenters, not so much. But that's hardly unsurprising, is it?
It doesn't bother me that he didn't comment on the Microsoft results here. It's his blog and he can write about what he wants, I reckon.

BladRnr: Have a good weekend too. But, seriously, I hope you also grow a thicker skin over the weekend. It can't be good for your health to get that worked up because someone on a Windows-focused blog says something slightly negative about Apple - while at the same time saying a bunch of complimentary things. I mean, really, nobody should care that much about a company. If someone on a blog says something negative about you, do you think anyone at Apple is going to rush to your defense?

@BladRnr:
Leo was on MacBreak and TWiT Weekly trying to dismiss the whole Mac botnet thing as heresay. Of course, I could do the same thing about Conficker. April 1st came and went and the only fools were the ones that thought that Conficker was serious enough to worry about on that day (or the ones that left their systems insecure and got infected). Repeatedly, Leo has said "I like Vista" on Windows Weekly, but on MacBreak, the Mac cronies put down everything Microsoft and Leo is cracking jokes about it all too. How's that for a double standard?

As long as the RC is stable, functional, and has everything we've seen up till now, Microsoft will have done its job. While the earnings are disappointing, I completely disagree that they are "peaking like IBM." IBM is doing pretty good. I talked to one of their engineers who is making a pretty good amount of money. So if anything IBM withstood assaults from both Apple and Microsoft, and is moving on with its own game plan. IBM has plenty of its own business and so does Microsoft.
I'm just can't wait to try the RC for myself and see where this is going.
Ken, you can use as much logic and clear though as you like. Any of the hardcore Mac heads here don't give a damn. They resort to ad hominem personal attacks because they can't make eloquent arguements dispassionately. Yet they ignore all of the pitfalls of what Apple does in order to worship a product and a corporation. To me, My PC is just another tool that I use to accomplish task, get information, and entertainment. Nothing more or less.
If Paul's commentary is so biased and so wrong, why even respond to it? If it was so bad and so highly unbalanced and wrong, why even put any attention to it at all? Simply because they got nothing better to do than look down upon people.
I just wish Paul would put an ignore feature on here. There'd be a ton of them I'd block just on principle.

Actually, Thanks to "IBM clones" there were alternatives, so not many actually needed IBM. However, many companies cannot live without Microsoft [sort of locked-in, but by third party apps]. That's why I don't think that they will follow the same path.

"That thick skin, however, has nothing to do with the fact that here we are on a Windows (fan) site and no one is talking about MSFT's financials. What's everyone afraid of?"
Lol.BladRnr I find it hilarious that you are worked up about the reporting of Microsoft's financials on a random Windows website. Get out much?
Hey Waethorn I too was excited about the core i7's until I couldn't find a motherboard under 200 bucks. Some people just don't need tri-SLI.

"I expect him to fair with MSFT's numbers if he wants to talk about Apple's in a blog. Where did he discuss them on his BLOG? He didn't. In fact, no one here is talking about them. How coincidental for Windows Super SIte! Give MSFT a pass."
It's his decision what he talks about.
"Worst quarter in 23 years. Oh well."
So what? Anyway, I doubt this is the worst quarter in 23 years. It's the first time revenues have fallen, but this is far from being the worst quarter in 23 years.
"No one is going to belittle you because you have something negative to say in regards to MSFT. "
I guess you don't read this blog that often, in that case. Maybe you only read the articles where he is critical of Apple.

@BladRnr:
Why no mention of Apple's 1600 job cuts so that they saved money on salaries?
@hammy:
Wait for the i5's. They'll be good.
They will have HyperThreading too, so that quad-core will look like an 8-core to Windows (Windows can't really tell the difference between HT and multi-core - the CPU does the work of balancing the load). I personally built another i7 system today. <$1500(CDN) for a quality tower with enterprise-grade WD RAID Edition 3 drives, an EVGA X58 board, single EVGA GTS 260 "Super-Superclocked" 896MB card, and 6GB of DDR3-1333MHz RAM, backed by a 3-year parts and labour warranty.

@shark
"I'm glad that the economic recession is making some people happy. I guess there's some people that don't care if they lose their jobs as long as Microsoft does badly."
Ballmer is happy about the recession,
""The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."
Helpful. The trouble is, he's wrong. The helpful economy is driving all the WIndows vendors the bottom end machines where Microsoft makes almost no money. Apple of course, is not in that trap.

@BladRnr:
Why no mention of Apple's 1600 job cuts so that they saved money on salaries?
Because they didn't do it, despite the breathless "blog" pronouncements
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/20915/
"Isn't strange that one can think that a company making almost 3 billion dollars in profit, had a bad year? What have we done to ourselves! I'm actually being serious."
That's true, but as people have pointed out, a quarter isn't a trend. However, the long term trend is ominous for Microsoft:
" MSFT's market cap used to be $586B! It's now ~$180B. Apple's used to be $17B. It's now $112B."
Apple is now 2/3 the size of Microsoft, where it used to be 3% of Microsoft's size. I think we at last have an answer to Paul's paranoia and how Apple can be both a trivial annoyance and a looming threat. Come to think of it, it isn't paranoia at all.
Funny how you can have 3% marketshare and 67% of Microsoft's market cap.

Did they fix the problem that when one wants to install on drive D that drive d becomes drive c rather than remaining drive d? I have greenware installed on drive C with shortcuts that can be shared between multi-boot OSes... but does not work when win7 make drive d a drive c and the original c has to be added as a drive d. I have over 150 greenware apps that I can install on a multi-boot just by adding a new toolbar, of an existing folder set of shortcuts on drive C, to the taskbar.

Regardless of Apple vs MS, my point was that in today's economy, many business have gone bankrupt, yet some people are not impressed with 3 billion dollars in profit during today's economy. remember Circuit City or CompUSA? They're gone! Kudos to Apple for success.

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